French Study on mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Finds a Drop in Severe COVID—and No Increase in Deaths
Vaccinated adults had a 74 percent lower risk of dying from COVID-19—and a 25 percent lower risk of dying, period.
Science
Why Science Lost Its Way
Author Matt Ridley examines how science became centralized and dogmatic, why public trust collapsed during COVID, and how open dissent is essential to restoring credibility.
Our Obsession With Statistical Significance Is Ruining Science
A forgotten Guinness brewer's alternative approach could have prevented 100 years of mistakes in medicine, economics, and more.
Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein Comes Perilously Close to Opposing Human Flourishing
In the Oscar winning director's new Netflix film, humanity is the real monster.
'Genes Matter,' Says Scientist Studying Social Media and Mental Health
The study found only small links between social media use and users' well-being.
The U.N. Has Been Holding Climate Conferences for 30 Years. Carbon Emissions Continue To Climb.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperatures are on the rise after 33 years of largely fruitless negotiations.
Vaccine Skeptics Said That COVID Shots Would Cause Mass Death. We're Still Here.
Their predictions that millions, even billions would die haven't borne out.
Trump's Harmful and Illegal Plan to Gut H-1B Visas by Imposing $100,000 Fees
The plan violates the relevant visa law. If allowed to stand, it would significantly harm productivity and innovation.
The Trump Administration Misses Key Deadlines for Imposing Restrictions on Gain-of-Function Research
Biosafety advocates worry the administration is backtracking on its promise to implement meaningful restrictions on the type of research that likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Protein Powder Is Made Out of Air and Uses 600 Times Less Water Than Beef
The Finnish startup Solar Foods has received a "Generally Recognized as Safe" designation from the FDA.
Advocates of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Complain that 'the FDA Moved the Goalposts'
The agency's puzzling concerns about the Lykos Therapeutics drug application
Richard Dawkins on New Threats to Science—From Religion to Relativism
The legendary atheist and evolutionary biologist argues that truth shouldn't bend to faith or fashionable politics.
Don't Fear 'Frankenfood.' We're Already Living in the Lab-Grown Future.
Many people prefer naturally produced over man-made. But isn't there something just as compelling about the stuff that thousands of people collaborated to make?
Neither Cranks Nor Hacks Should Head HHS
RFK Jr. has had a crazy week. It will not be his last, alas.
Is Conscientiousness Cratering? It Depends on How You Twist the Data.
Despite those viral charts you may have seen, conscientiousness among young people doesn't actually seem to be in "freefall."
The Final Vacation Frontier
For just $55 million, you can book a weeklong vacation on the International Space Station. It's not exactly an all-inclusive beach resort.
The Department of Energy Just Admitted Climate Change May Not Be Catastrophic
A report affirms that greenhouse gases are warming the planet, but it also found no convincing evidence that U.S. hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or droughts have become more frequent or intense in recent decades.
America's Two-Front War on Science
Universities’ internal culture wars threaten free speech and inquiry, but political attacks on research funding and infrastructure are crippling U.S. scientific leadership.
Upholding a Vaccine Mandate, the 9th Circuit Embraces an Alarmingly Broad Definition of 'Public Health'
The appeals court held that the government may require COVID-19 shots based purely on the benefits to recipients.
Science Needs Dissent: NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya on COVID, Autism, and Climate Change
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya defends open disagreement, criticizes groupthink, and argues that democracy depends on our ability to speak and listen across political and scientific divides.
Did USAID Really Save 90 Million Lives? Not Unless It Raised the Dead
A Lancet study’s inflated numbers are being used to push a partisan narrative, not inform public policy.
Although Meth Is Irresistible, The New York Times Says, Addicts Often Prefer Small Cash Rewards
The success of "contingency management" belies the notion that addiction is an uncontrollable disease caused by a drug's impact on dopamine levels.
The Depopulation Bomb
What if the challenge for humanity’s future is not too many people on a crowded planet, but too few people to sustain the progress that the world needs?
Jurassic World Rebirth Chases Summer Movie Nostalgia
In this painfully mediocre Jurassic Park franchise placeholder, even the hypocrisy is nostalgic.
No, That Viral Study Doesn't Show You Can Improve Your Mental Health by Deactivating Instagram
While a viral post called the results “shocking,” the study itself found little evidence that social media use harms mental health.
Despite What Robert F. Kennedy Wants You To Think, Cell Phones Do Not Cause Brain Cancer
Unfortunately, the director of Health and Human Services leads a movement prone to untrue beliefs on medical matters from cell phones to vaccines, pesticides, and genetically modified crops.
Does Drug Use Lead to Addiction, or Are Some Brains More Prone To Use Drugs?
Researchers argue that "we may need to reevaluate the causal assumptions that underlie brain disease models of addiction."
SCOTUS Upholds Tennessee Law Banning Medical Transition for Transgender Kids
With the culture war blazing, not even the Supreme Court could agree on the medical facts of the case.
Lab-Grown Salmon Gets FDA Approval
States keep banning lab-grown meat. Entrepreneurs keep innovating anyway.
The Dreadful Policies Halting Archeological Discoveries
Italy is full of treasures from the ancient world, but its government is discouraging their discovery.
Photo: Dire Wolf De-extinction
A biotech company used DNA from thousands of years ago to clone three wolf pups that resemble the extinct dire wolf.
Is Donald Trump To Blame for a COVID Lab Leak?
Criticisms of the president's alleged flip-flopping on gain-of-function research funding miss some key context.
Eisenhower Warned Us About the 'Scientific Elite'
The Trump administration's plans to slash science funding could end up liberating researchers from the corrupting influence Dwight Eisenhower warned about.
When the U.S. Military Gave People Radiation Poisoning
"We did a lot of field studies and got nothing to show for it," said one U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory researcher.
Richard Dawkins: Why Atheism Is Winning
The evolutionary biologist challenges modern dogmas, defends scientific objectivity, and warns against the rise of ideological orthodoxy in society.
Reason Nominated for 17 Southern California Journalism Awards
Nominees include stories on inflation breaking brains, America's first drug war, Afghans the U.S. left behind, Javier Milei, and much more.
A New Survey Suggests Illicit Opioid Use Is Much More Common Than the Government's Numbers Indicate
The survey estimates that 7.5 percent of America adults use illegally produced fentanyl each year, 25 times the rate indicated by a government-sponsored survey.
Trump's Budget Calls for $17 Billion Cut to NIH, Citing Lax Oversight of Gain-of-Function Research in Wuhan
The White House budget plan says the agency's failure to prove it was not complicit in a possible lab leak shows it's "too big and unfocused."
Virtual Fencing Can Help Buffalo Roam and Antelope Play
Hundreds of thousands of miles of fences ensnare and sometimes kill wild animals. GPS technology offers an alternative.
4 Apocalypses That Never Were
Climate change is real and may cause real problems. But media outlets keep pushing hysterical myths that don't materialize.
The First Colored Eggs Appeared Long Before Easter
The dinosaur ancestors of birds laid blue, brown, and speckled eggs as far back as 150 million years ago.
3 Apocalyptic Climate Change Predictions That Failed To Come True
Yes, the climate is warming. But, despite what you may have heard, we can deal with it.
Study: Kids With Smartphones Are Less Depressed, Anxious, Bullied Than Peers Without Them
A large new study finds smartphone ownership positively correlated with multiple measures of well being in 11- to 13-year-old kids.
North Carolina Is the Latest State To Try To Restrict Lab-Grown Meat
Cultivated meat isn't challenging slaughtered meat anytime soon. But states keep trying to restrict competition.
Will Jay Bhattacharya Get Gain-of-Function Research Under Control?
The past three administrations have tried and failed to implement binding regulations on risky research that likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Mouse Has Two Biological Dads?!
An experiment with staggering implications for the future of human reproduction.
France Accuses Trump of Booting Space Researcher Over 'Personal Opinion'
Border officials reportedly barred the academic from visiting Texas after finding anti-Trump messages on his phone.
